Thursday, June 23, 2011

Blu-Ray

Mark Evanier commented on his blog entry about the upcoming Blu-Ray release of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" that he has not embraced the new format. His reasoning being that by the time he converts to the new format, the Blu-Ray will be deemed obsolete. I tend to agree with that notion despite having friends that swear by Blu-Ray.

Now, I am no luddite, but I tend to embrace new formats that seem to be practical and do not compromise what I already own. Also, cost and availability has a lot to do with it, too.

In the case of video, I go back to the stone ages of Super 8 and actually purchased a few 7 minute films that cost 10x more than an entire DVD does today.

When video tape came in, my dad purchased a Beta machine in early 1977. I thought this was the greatest invention of the world. Unfortunately, Sony was slow on the uptake on video tape and very soon VHS took over. I HATED that format, and initially refused to embrace it, until it became impossible to find Beta tapes anymore. This despite the fact that Beta is a better quality video tape format than VHS ever was.

Next came 12" laser discs and video discs. Many people got laser discs, but I passed due to the cost and the fact that you had to flip everything over to get the rest of the film. Besides, by this time, vinyl record albums were on the way out and being replaced by CD's. I saw no purpose in replacing the large format discs with another version.

Now my mom purchased a video disc machine. This differed from the laser disc as the principle was more closely related to the vinyl record with a needle than what eventually became the DVD. Had my mom not purchased one of these machines, I would have bypassed this format as well

Next came DVD. I totally embraced this format, but was initially hesitant, thinking that it wouldn't catch on. I made the conscious decision to not by DVD's unless Disney released them and the machines dropped in price lower than $200. Eventually, Disney joined the DVD race with "Mary Poppins" and machines did get lower, and I sold virtually all of my video tapes. (I still have my films, however...)

Now, it's Blu-Ray. I haven't accepted this format primarily because I don't have a high-definition TV (and don't plan to get one anytime soon), the movies I tend to buy aren't released on Blu-Ray anyway, and the ones that are, usually don't have much that's significantly different in that format.

Now, if they released the COMPLETE Looney Tunes or something to Blu-Ray, you can bet your boots I'd be buying them, and a new TV and a Blu-Ray player today.

Also, agreeing with Mark Evanier, if I did transition over, they'd probably replace it with a new format as soon as I got it, such as streaming video or video on a flash drive or such similar non-spinning device.

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About Me

Mark Arnold (1966- ) was born in San Jose, California. He is a comic book and animation historian, and has had many articles published in various publications. He has a BA in Broadcast Communication Arts from San Francisco State and has performed many celebrity interviews. He edited and published "The Harveyville Fun Times!" from 1990-2011 and published his first book "The Best of the Harveyville Fun Times!" in 2006. His second book "Created and Produced by Total TeleVision productions: The Story of Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo and the Rest" was published in 2009 by BearManor Media. His third and fourth books for BearManor are called "If You're Cracked, You're Happy: The Story of Cracked Mazagine, Book Won and Book Too" and a fifth book called "Mark Arnold Picks on The Beatles" were all issued in 2011. He plans to write a children's book and a book about Disney among other things. He currently resides in Eugene, OR.